The Curse of the Night of Harvest Moon
by Relm Wanderer
Summary: RSBI Halloween fic 2001-2003 Oh but once a day dark and weary does a wrestles soul once see, what is truth and what is lies? And everything that comes between? Or perhaps just the madness of trying? - Couple free fic; mostly Xellos, Lina and Zel centric
1. Part 1  RSBI Halloween fic 2001

_Author's Notes: This is RSBI's 2001 Halloween fic and part 1 of 3. (Each part was updated a different Halloween.) This one is strange and when writing it I didn't have a clear idea of where it was going to go. I just started writing and let the story dictate where it wanted to go. This was my first attempt at doing a dark Slayers fanfic. I don't usually write dark fanfics save for Halloween, so this one turned out extremely odd for me. _

_Gavin Inverse, one of my created characters appears in this fic. Gavin in my Slayers verse is Lina's younger brother whom is around Amelia's age and height with blue green hair and eyes. His magic specialty is Time magic and he's usually an optimistic person. Usually when Gavin appears in fanfics that Amelia is in I tend to pair the two of them up. (How Mary Sue of me) Not so in this fanfic. No pairings in this fanfic at all. _

**The Curse of the Night of Harvest Moon**

Part One

By Relm

_Oh but once a day dark and weary does a wrestles soul once see, what is truth and what is lies? And everything that comes between? Or perhaps just the madness of trying?_

...

A dark shrouded person walked the streets during a moonless night with a dark purpose in his insane mind.

"Revenge oh how revenge is sweet, and so sweet that will make everything just right." The dark clad man hissed with a cackle. And in his hand he held a torn picture of person that could not be made out clearly because the part of the picture where the person's head should be had been torn off.

...

Amelia shuddered in her chair. She knew that she shouldn't be so superstitious about what day was coming up but she couldn't help but think of all those awful stories she had been told in the past. "Miss Lina?"

"What?" Lina barked out at her. Lina was right in the middle of eating her dinner and didn't like to be interrupted. Amelia, Lina, Zelgadis, Gourry, Xellos, Sylphiel and Gavin were all eating dinner in a small town that they had ended up in after a long two days of travel.

"Um, are you um… I don't know… a bit uneasy about tomorrow?" Amelia had her eyes glued to her plate. She couldn't look up because she knew that she was being silly and she was mentally kicking herself for it. But still the worry was there.

"Oh for crying out loud Amelia! You can't possibly think all those myths are true do you? Nothing happens on the night of Harvest Moon. Their just old wives tales that were made up to scare little children not to cause mischief." Lina growled as she went back to food.

"Lina what's the night of Harvest Moon?" A person asked. Of course Gourry would be that person. (sweatdrops all around)

"Are you honestly telling me that you haven't heard of the night of Harvest Moon before? Man what were you raised by wolves or something?" Lina bopped him on the head. "No what am I saying? You were probably told it before but weren't listening or don't remember. Though I don't think it would have mattered much to your parents anyway. Probably too dumb to do anything bad." Lina muttered and continued to shovel food in her mouth.

"Someone's got to explain it to him." Zelgadis pointed out. Everyone's eyes turned to Lina.

"I'm sure as hell not going to do it! I was the one who had to explain who Shabranigdo was."

"Who's that again?" (Guess who asked that?)

Then everyone looked to Zelgadis who just groaned.

"Okay fine. The night of Harvest Moon happens once every three years on the same day as harvesting. The reason why it's called Harvest Moon is because the night before it there is no moon in the sky and on the day of harvest during the normal yearly festival there's a full moon. And that night the full moon stays in the sky for as long as it stays night and it stays night for a few hours longer then a normal. No one knows why this happens because theoretically it's impossible, but it does happen every three years.

Now as the legend goes some time back in the past in a small quiet farming town some of the village children where causing some trouble on the night of Harvest Moon. It's said that these kids while they were destroying and stealing things they angered a very powerful goddess by destroying one of her temples. She told them that she would forgive them if they apologized and promised to fix the temple. But they angered her more by refusing and they went on destroying more of her temple. She was so full of fury that she created hundreds of evil creatures and put a curse on the world. Whomever acted what the goddess thought of as bad on the night of Harvest Moon would have some of her creatures 'take care' of them. The children laughed in her face and went to their homes. And during that night in each of those kid's homes their parents heard blood curling screams that woke them all up. And when each parent of those children who had angered the goddess rushed to their kids' rooms they were horrified to discover that their kids had disappeared. All that remained was blood on their children's sheets and their children's dying screams in the air." Zelgadis finished and took another sip of his tea. Everyone minus Lina and Xellos gasped at Zelgadis with mouths hanging open.

"My Zelgadis you're quite the story teller." Lina said with a smirk and continued to eat. And she was the only one eating too; everyone else had lost their appetites (except Zel had already finished eating himself so it really didn't matter to him.)

"Miss Lina can't believe you can still eat after hearing that!" Amelia exclaimed.

"Oh it's quite simple Amelia, I don't believe any of that. I don't care if it's the night of Harvest Moon, nor do care if I do something bad have some wacko goddess' creatures come after me. I'm not scared by stupid things like that, and neither should you." Lina shovelled the last bit of her food and happily sighed in content. "Anyway I'm done I think I'll head off to bed now. Goodnight everyone." Lina waltzed off without a care in the world.

...

_A few hours later…_

Amelia was laying in her bed freaked out of her mind. She couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard she tried. All she could think about was the night of Harvest Moon. In the past she had always been unable to sleep the day before the night of Harvest Moon and ended up sleeping through most of the harvest festivities.

She eventually just got up and went out in the hallway to go downstairs to go get something to help her nerves. When she stepped out into the hallway she bumped into a dark shadowy person.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Both Amelia and the shadowy person screamed at the same time. Amelia looked at the shadowy person blankly just to realize it was Gavin.

"Gavin?"

"Oh um hi Amelia." Both of them were quiet for a very moments, both embarrassed.

"Couldn't sleep. What about you?"

"Same reason."

Again another lapse of silence passed by.

"We're being silly aren't we?"

"I guess so. I was heading downstairs, care to join me?" Amelia smiled at Gavin.

"Sure."

...

_The morning of Harvest Moon…_

"So Miss Lina what are we going to do today?" Xellos said in his usual cheeriness.

"Might as well stick around here for the festival. Just because it's both Harvest day celebration and Harvest Moon doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the festivities." Lina grinned mischievously. On the Harvest day festival one thing that you could find in even the smallest of towns was lots of good food. There was no way that Lina was going to pass this up.

Zelgadis shook his head. "You just want to stick around and freeload."

Lina glared at him. "And what's so bad about that? We're in a nice quiet town that likes to share its festivities with others; it would be an insult if we didn't accept their generosity."

Everyone sweatdropped.

"Gee Miss Lina really knows how to twist things around…" Amelia stated.

Everyone else nodded.

"So what are you guys waiting for? Let's go!" Lina declared and walked off.

'How is it that I go on my own trying to find a cure lead and somehow I end up back with everyone going along with one of Lina's crazy ideas?' Zelgadis shook his head again and followed the group, which was following Lina.

Not too far away from them the same dark shrouded person that appeared in the town the day before watched them with a wild look in his eyes. He laughed crazily clutching the picture in his hand.

People around the strange man started to stare and point. The man noticing this immediately stopped his insane cackle and ran off.

Zelgadis gave a curious stare back towards all the commotion was. "Hey Lina what do you think just happened over there?" Zelgadis asked Lina turning his head around to look at the petite sorceress. But to his dismay she wasn't listening. She and the others were busily chomping down on some harvest treats that had been given to them. Zelgadis glared at Xellos. "Why the hell would you be eating for? I thought monsters didn't eat mortal food."

"What's wrong with me trying to fit in with the crowd?"

"You mean pretending to be a human?"

"Exactly."

Rather than answering Zelgadis just ignores the headache inducing monster.

...

The day went by rather fast while the whole group took advantage of the festivities. Zelgadis was marvelled on how no one was treating like a freak. He was being treated like a normal person and not a chimera. Which really surprised him. Ever since he had been turned into a chimera Zelgadis had avoided taking part in this festival. This was the first time he was taking part in this festival since he became a chimera.

Meanwhile Gourry and Lina were completely gorging out on as much food they could get their hands on.

Sylphiel and Gavin both found Lina and Gourry's manors embarrassing but was otherwise enjoying themselves while Xellos was just being Xellos.

The only person who wasn't really enjoying herself was Amelia. All she could think about was the harvest moon. She was deathly afraid that she was going to do something bad that would anger the vengeful goddess. So much that it was making her jumpy and klutzy.

...

In a dark room only lit by a circle of black candles the darkly clad man sat in the middle of the circle. The blue flames of the candles made strange patterns on the person's face and on the walls around him.

The man's eyes shone with an eerie red light as he cackled wildly staring down at the picture in front of him.

"Revenge, revenge…." He chanted over and over. Beads of sweat dripped off his brow in deep concentration. "They all will die! Everyone one of them… don't sleep… death, death… death, death… mass murder… all shall die before the night is over… revenge, revenge… oh how I will have my revenge…"

...

Amelia felt a sudden sense of disorientation as she and the others passed by town's temple shrine to their harvest goddess. Everything started to spin around her and wobbled on her feet. She felt like her whole body was being turned into jelly.

She felt herself stumble backwards. Amelia fell backwards into a small shrine statue that fell to the ground with a slight thud.

Everyone immediately froze and their eyes locked on Amelia. All of the townspeople stared at Amelia with blank emotionless stares. Not one of them made a sound or moved at all.

Amelia almost shreaked in terror. She quickly picked up the little statue which thankfully wasn't cracked or broken in anyway and put the statue back on its pillar in the way it was before.

The townspeople still remained still and silent for a few moments. It was as if they were all waiting from something to happen. And when nothing did everyone started to move again and carry on with their business like nothing had happened.

Lina frowned at the previous display. "Guess they must be really serious about their shrines…" Lina shrugged it off and went back to eating food.

...

The rest of the day went fine except for the fact that Amelia was terrified out of her mind. 'What did I do? What did I do?' She kept thinking the same thoughts over and over again. 'Did I anger the goddess am I going to be punished?'

Normally Lina would say something to this obvious display of worry by Amelia, only Lina was too wrapped up in what she was doing that she was obviously to Amelia.

"Amelia don't worry too much about it. Mistakes happen. I don't think that a goddess could get angry at you for accidentally knocking over one of her temple statues." Gavin said trying to calm her down.

Amelia burst into tears. "But, but I defiled her temple! And I could have broken that statue!" Amelia said overdramatically.

"But you didn't and you put it back exactly the way that it was before. And you didn't defile her temple just by moving something. If you had broken it then maybe it would be defiling. Besides no goddess would be that petty to get angry over such a stupid little insignificant thing."

"You think so?"

"I know so Amelia. You don't need to worry one bit!" Gavin gave her a warm smile.

"Thank you Gavin!" Amelia cried out giving him one of her dad's big bear hugs that leaves you breathless… literately.

"Don't (cough) mention…it." Gavin said with his face a bluish color from lack of oxygen.

"Okay guys it's time to go for the big harvest dinner feast!" Lina declared dragging everyone in the group to the town square.

"Lina all you have been doing the whole day is eating. Aren't you full yet? I don't think you want to have a stomach ache."

"I'm not full yet Zel and I'm not going to get sick!" Lina growled at him and her eyes glazed over in happiness once she saw all the food there was to eat. "Let's eat!"

...

By the end of the feat there wasn't a single scrap of food left, Lina and Gourry had made sure of that.

The night sky was dark and the bright full moon bathed the town in its lunar light. It was now late and it was time for everyone to retire to their beds.

After a meal like that everyone was tired and sleepy. Not one person should have trouble sleeping that night. Or so that was the original thought.

Lina mentally cursed Zelgadis as she lay uncomfortably on her bed in the inn. She was sleepy, and she was tired, but there was no way she was going to fall asleep anytime soon. Why? She had a stomach ache.

'Damn you Zel! Damn you, damn you, damn you, DAMN YOU!'

Lina got out of her bed and decided to see if there was anything downstairs that she could take to settle her stomach. She would have casted a healing spell if she could. But during the night of the harvest moon for some strange reason magic was impossible to cast. Lina couldn't even cast a simple light spell and the same went for every other mage around. Though Lina herself wondering if this no-magic effect was only limited to mortals. 'Can monsters cast magic at this time?' Lina evilly grinned at the thought.

She noticed at she went into the hall on how quiet the whole inn seemed to be. There wasn't a single sound in the whole place except for the sounds of Lina's light breathing and creaking sounds of her feet on stepping on the old hard wood flooring.

Lina dismissed the extreme silence and quietly as she could she went down the stairs to the inn's restaurant. She tip-toed around and almost screamed at the top of her lungs once she realized that she wasn't alone in the dark restaurant. Or she would have screamed if the person behind her had not grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth quickly before she could make any noises.

"What are you doing up so late?" Zelgadis whispered in her ear.

Lina's previously shocked face turned into one of complete anger as she grabbed Zelgadis by the arm and sent him flying over her shoulder. Zelgadis crashed very loudly into a table and some chairs.

"Next time think twice before you think about sneaking up on me like that!" Lina spat out in a hissed whisper.

Both she and Zelgadis were half expecting to hear people protesting to the noise and come down and complain at the two of them. But they heard nothing. Not one people had been woken up by the noise they had just made.

"Wow that's really freaky…" Lina commented out loud.

Zelgadis got up and brushed himself off of table and chair debris before walking back over to Lina. "Alright I'm sorry for sneaking up on you like that. But why are you up anyway?" Zelgadis whispered to her while lighting up a candle.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Your stomach hurts doesn't it?" Zelgadis smiled mischievously.

"Shut up! Grrrr…" She glared at him evilly. "So why the hell are you up?"

"Because Xellos has been driving me nuts!"

Lina raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"He refuses to let me sleep! He's been bothering me since we all went back to our rooms!"

"Ne, Zelly you're soo mean!" Xellos cried out appearing out of nowhere and latching onto Zelgadis' arm.

Zelgadis gave him one good pound to the noggin and Xellos fell to the ground clutching his now sore head.

"And what the hell is up with him?"

"He's scared."

Lina had to bite her lip in order from laughing hysterically. "Scared? A powerful monster like him scared?" Lina couldn't contain it anymore and she started to laugh out loud.

"Why is everyone so mean to me? I can't help it that the harvest moon does this to me!" Xellos cried out with tears falling down his cheeks in waterfalls.

Lina paused for a moment. "Harvest moon?"

"During the night of the harvest moon all monsters are turned mortal till the moon goes down and the sun rises."

Lina started laughing again and harder than ever. "Oh this is tooo rich! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Shhhh! Lina keep quiet! You might wake up the other people in the building." Zelgadis shushed her.

"I doubt that, everyone seems to be pretty dead asleep."

Xellos was going to say something when suddenly they heard one terrible blood curdling scream coming from one of the inn's rooms. But before they could react that scream was joined by many others in a sickening melody of death till the whole inn seemed to echo with the painful screams.

Just as they started the screams one-by-one died down till only one scream remained dying out, barely lingering in the still air.

Without one word of communication between the three of them, Zelgadis and Lina immediately ran back up the stairs with Xellos frightfully following. They rushed into Gourry's room, but the blond swordsman was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that remained in the room was the thick dark red blood that soaked his sheets. The stench of death was in the air as if death had been in this room many days prior. Lina almost gagged on from the smell and they quickly left the room.

In Sylphiel's room it was the same. Nothing but blood. And that smell. Oh how Lina and Zelgadis couldn't stand that smell. Xellos himself didn't dare go in the room or any other. He stood out in the halls unable to move.

Amelia's room was the same, and Gavin's and everyone else's in the whole inn. Not one person remained except the three of them.

Lina fell to her knees in horror, sickness and in rage. She shook violently as she looked on her brother's bed. Tears of sadness and anger threatened to spill and she looked away from the bloody mess to the window. The once pale white Harvest Moon was now scarlet red washing the town with a blood red glow.


	2. Part 2 RSBI Halloween fic 2002

_Author's Notes: This is RSBI's 2002 Halloween fic. _

**The Curse of the Night of Harvest Moon**

Part Two

By Relm

Lina, Zelgadis and Xellos made their way out of the inn in silence. None of them knew what to say, but one thing was sure, whoever did this was going to pay.

Outside the red moon still washed the town with its' crimson glow. The once bustling town that celebrated their harvest festival only mere hours ago was now as still and as quiet as death.

Xellos was abashed with feelings he didn't know how to deal with. Yes he had felt fear before but never this strongly. And normally if something terrible like this had happened to any one of Lina and her friends he couldn't have cared. But now his stomach was tied in knots with horrors of what might have befallen the others. He stared up to the moon, unsure of whether or not this was the first time it shone red on the night of the harvest moon.

The still silence was broken by the soft cries of a scared child.

Lina, Zelgadis and Xellos turned their heads to see a small group of people coming towards them.

'I guess we're not the only ones left after all.' Zelgadis thought solemnly.

"You're Lina Inverse aren't you?" An elderly man asked Lina once he was within a few feet of her.

"I am."

There was a quiet murmur within the group. Some of them looked fearful, some seemed angry and rest just looked hopeful in a sad sort of way.

"Please Miss Lina I beg you! Please find the evil that has attacked out town and free our missing people!" The man got down to his knees begging and many followed suit.

Lina's already darken expression darkened further. "What could I do?" Her voice was strangely quiet.

"You're Lina Inverse the famed bandit killer! A powerful sorceress, with your magic you-"

"I don't know if you never had any mages in your town or if you've never been informed enough but on the night of harvest moon no one can cast magic."

The villages gasped.

"You can't use magic… at all?"

"Not till the moon falls and the sun rises. And by then whoever did this might be long gone. Along with any chances of getting your missing people back." Lina let out a heavy sigh.

"But surely you must do something!" The elder desperately pleased with her.

Normally in this type of a situation Lina would agree to help but for a very outlandish price. But this was different. She looked over to Zelgadis who nodded in agreement.

"I don't know what we'll be able to do but we'll try."

The remaining townspeople cheered in triumphant.

"Hold on a minute! Don't start cheering yet! We'd said we'd try that doesn't mean we'll succeed!"

"But you're Lina Inverse and Lina Inverse always destroys the bad guys!" A little boy too unlike Amelia cheered.

Lina sweatdropped.

"Lina we probably better find out why we're the only ones still left." Zelgadis suggested ignoring the display in front of them.

Lina nodded. "What were you all doing when everyone disappeared?"

"I was getting a midnight snack." Said one person.

"I couldn't sleep because my tummy hurt." One child said.

"My big brother said the vengeance goddess was going to get after me when I went to sleep so I was hiding under my bed." Another child spoke.

One by one all the townspeople recounted what they were doing at the time everyone disappeared. One thing they all had in common was that they all had been awake at the time.

"It looks like it only affect those who fall asleep." Zelgadis observed after hearing everyone's stories.

"Can you help us?"

"We'll give it our best shot." Lina motioned for Xellos and Zelgadis to follow her back to the inn. She looked back and yelled, "Whatever you do don't fall asleep!" to the remaining townspeople.

...

Once back at the inn Lina lit a lamp and they sat at a table.

"Xellos are all magic creatures affected by the harvest moon?" Lina asked after a moment of silence.

"Yes all of them. Any creature that can cast magic loses their magic abilities and immortal creatures like myself become mortal." Xellos uncharacteristically answered. He knew he would normally be un co-operative but at this time he didn't care. He couldn't feed off the emotions at the moment anyway.

"So I guess that rules out monsters. And if nothing can do magic at this time then I guess that rules out magic all together too." Lina frowned.

"I don't know Lina I'd swear this was done by magic. Even though I can't cast magic at the moment when my chimera body I can still feel the after effects of magic. And this feels like magic was evolved."

"I know what you mean Zel. And I don't think the moon turning red like that is a natural phenomenon either."

"What about the vengeance goddess' curse?" Xellos asked in a very small voice.

"The curse? It's just nonsense! And even if it were everyone wouldn't have been punished like that. It would have just been the bad ones. Amelia disappeared for Pete's sake! And she's the most goody-goody person I know! She didn't do anything bad today at all!" Lina exclaimed.

"Except for knocking over that statue."

Lina frowned while chewing on her bottom lip in thought. Lina remembered Amelia accidentally knocking over that statue. But Amelia hadn't broken it at all and she had put it back exactly the way it had been. "So what if she knocked it over. She put it back the way it was and she didn't even break it."

"But it was one of the vengeance goddess' statues from her shrine wasn't it?" Xellos piped in.

"Knocking over a statue accidentally isn't enough to defile a shrine. And even if it was Amelia would have been punished not every else as well."

"But do you think that statue could be connected to what's going on here?"

Lina narrowed her eyes at Zelgadis. "How?"

"I don't know, maybe someone used a curse of some kind?"

"That would still require the use of magic which is impossible to cast during the harvest moon." Lina got up and started pacing around. "Unless… what if the curse or spell was casted before the harvest moon started to rise?"

"In order for that to work the spell would have to have been triggered to work after the moon rose. Could that even be possible with the magic nullification effects of the moon? And if it was who would want to do something like this and why?" Zelgadis mused discontentedly.

"Well Miss Lina does have lots of enemies so it could be any one of a large number of people."

Lina glared at the offending trickster priest but chose to ignore his comment seeing how it was true after all. "Where do we even start looking for clues to solve this?"

"Well we could check out that temple statue that Amelia knocked over. Might have a clue somewhere."

Lina gave a nod and the three of them went back to venture outside.

The air was quiet and cold but carried no wind. The moon still gave off its' red glow but not stars shone in the sky. The sky was an abyss of black but even though there seemed to be no stars present there were no clouds in the sky either. It was a strange black mist that blanketed the town which made Lina wonder if this was a result of what caused so many people to disappear.

The sky almost seemed to open up as dark drops of rain fell from the mist covered sky. The rain felt like ice as it pelted down on them. Lina felt herself shiver uncontrollably as they made a mad dash for cover. Besides being ice cold the rain was not like normal rain. It looked almost black as it fell from the sky but when it made contact they realized it was a very dark red. Lina was thankful of there being no wind. The rain was chilling enough by itself.

While trying to avoid the rain as much as possible Zelgadis, Xellos and Lina made their way to the temple where Amelia had knocked over the statue.

Seeing how it was raining red you'd think it would stain their clothing red. But strangely it didn't. This whole night seemed to be strange with odd anomalies. There was no doubt that magic was involved now. None of this was natural so the area around them was being affected by something dark and powerful. Which considering the situation just didn't seem to add up.

After a few moments of dashing around they reached the temple. It wasn't a large temple nor was it very elaborate either. It was small and simple with two statues guarding the entrance. The statue on the left was the one Amelia had accidentally knocked over.

If you didn't look at the statues carefully you wouldn't notice anything strange about them. But if you did you'd notice that the eyes of the statues were glowing red ever so slightly.

"Well I think this answers the question on whether or not the statues are involved." Zelgadis observed as he went to look at it closely. The statues gave off a small magic sense that with Zelgadis' chimera form could sense. But this puzzled Zelgadis. If this was the center of this magic spell that was cast on this town then the magic essence it gave off should have been stronger.

"Wasn't the statues miniature versions of the vengeance goddess?" Xellos asked eying them closely. The statues were both identical; both of them were kneeling woman that seemed to be praying. Only instead of a woman's face their faces were disfigured in a demonic sort of way and they both seemed to smiling evil crazy smiles.

"Now that you mention it they didn't look like this earlier today." Lina remember the statues looked very pretty and the face of the goddess didn't look demonic.

"Do you think someone switched them?"

"If someone didn't then either the statues changed forms or we didn't remember what they looked like too well. But I wouldn't be surprised if they changed forms with all the crazy stuff going on here." Lina said while looking around them. A red moon, a misty black sky, raining red rain and hundreds of people disappearing without a trace. Yeah this wasn't an ordinary night.

"If this is what triggered the spell then why is it giving off so little magic essence?" Zelgadis wondered out loud.

"It's not?"

"No it isn't."

"Are you even sure you're perception is sharp? Maybe because you're 1/3 human that it's messing up your ability to sense magic more then you thought. And the moon is supposed to affect all magic casting creatures so that would affect your demon side too. It's a wonder you can even sense anything at all." Lina herself couldn't sense a thing. Even under the worst examples (like for instants, 'that time of the month') she still had the simplest of magic to her disposal. And even if she couldn't really cast magic she wasn't numb to the magic around her. She could feel the slight tingling of her skin as she felt the after effects of a spell. But here on this night that only happens once every three years she was numb to all magic. She couldn't feel it she couldn't cast it. She was completely robbed off all her magic abilities and usage of spells. And for someone that relies so heavily on magic it would make anyone edgy.

"I know my ability to sense magic has been weakened but not that much. And there isn't that much more magic essence coming off from that statue then from everything else in the town. In fact both statues are giving off the same amount of essence."

Lina chewed her bottom lip in thought. "Maybe this isn't the main focus of the spell. It might just be the trigger or an anchor to support the spell. The focal point of the spell might be elsewhere."

"You mean like inside the temple?" Xellos suggested.

Both Lina and Zelgadis opening stared at Xellos as if he had sprouted two more heads.

"What you don't think that's a good idea?"

"No it would probably be a good place to check out."

"Then why did you two-"

"Never mind let's go."

...

The outside of the temple may have been simple but the inside of it was anything but. It turns out that the temple went underground and had many levels leading downward. Everywhere there were statues, paintings and carvings of the vengeance goddess. There were massive pillars and monoliths with legends and prayers to the goddess etched in. Candles had been lit and left burning lining the path downward and many bundles of incense burned making them feel suffocated with the strong earthy smell the smoke gave off.

After descending the many stairs leading down they reached the main room at the bottom. It was the largest room of the temple and at the back of it stood another image of the vengeance goddess, her standing with her arms open. At her feet laid lots of harvest offerings, which were starting to rot leaving a sour stench in the air.

Unlike all the statues in the temple this large statue didn't depict the goddess looking beautiful and young. This one resembled the two statues outside guarding the entrance to the temple. Its' face was contorted and demon like with an evil twisted smile gracing its' lips and its' eyes shone with a red glow.

Lina looked over to Zelgadis to ask him what he sensed but stopped when she noticed the frown on his face. "What is it?"

"Remember how I said that the statues outside aren't giving off that much more magic essence then everything else in the town? Well this statue is giving off as much essence as those two outside."

Lina lowered her face and gave a desperate sigh. 'This is all my fault. If I hadn't insisted on us staying in town for the festival then Sylphiel, Gourry, Amelia and Gavin would be fine now instead of-' Lina pounced on that thought before she could finish it. 'No I can't think like this. Just because they are missing and there was blood doesn't mean that they are…' "Okay so this isn't the main focal point but we've got a three point anchor going on here. So either way the focal has to be nearby. Zel did you sense anything on our way to the temple? Like a stronger flow of magic any place near here?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "With all the miasma around the town it's hard to pin point anything unless I'm in very close range to it."

Lina kicked a pile of fruit nearby in frustration. "Damnit!" She paced a little bit. "I guess the only way is to check the area around the temple. And with that rain it's not going to be easy. I would say split up and search but that would be useless unless me and Xellos could sense the magic residue and since we can't we all need to stick together. So that's going to make this take a lot longer."

"Then we'd better get going."

"Miss Lina why can't we just destroy one of the statues if that is what the person is using to support their power wouldn't destroying one of them break the spell?" Xellos asked as they made their way back up the stairs.

"We can't do that Xellos. Let's assume that everyone is being held captive in a dimensional pocket of sorts. That person using the spell is our only contact to the pocket. If we break their source to the spell we'd lose whatever chance to get at everything. The pocket would close and the person wouldn't be able to get it back because of the magic nullification of the moon. More likely so this is a curse, which is using those statues to hold the curse up. Now breaking the statues could break the curse and return everyone back but then it could also kill them all too."

"If they aren't already dead." Xellos thought out loud.

Lina stopped dead in her tracks. She had not even let herself think that they could be dead. The thought was too painful. "No. They are not dead and don't you ever say that again!" Lina screamed at Xellos making him jump back in fright. "Now let's keep going."

...

The sounds of heavy rain greeted Lina, Xellos and Zelgadis as they reached the entrance of the temple. But now the wind had started making it a bleary scene of a raging storm outside.

Lina already shuddered and she hadn't even gone outside yet. "More likely so the person doing this curse is either indoors or underground. Because I don't think any person could concentrate in that weather. So let's start off with all the houses and buildings surrounding the town."

Lina braced herself as she opened the temple door to brace the rain and wind. It hit her like a ton of bricks almost sending her backwards. "Let's start with the closest building in front of us! Lina yelled above the rain and wind.

The first building in front of them was only a mere block away but with the numbing effect of the icy rain it made it just that more longer to get to.

Suddenly it started to rain harder completely drenching them in the near black water.

It was a haze of darkness making it practically impossible to see. But Lina still went on forward desperately trying to reach her goal.

With a tremendous amount of effort Lina made it to the building. Her numbed hands reached for the knob. They stung as they made contact and screamed (if hands could scream) in pain as she gripped the knob and tried to turn it.

The door opened to easily and Lina fell forward knocking the wind out of her. Behind her she heard the door slam itself shut.

As Lina gasped for breath all sprawled out on the ground she felt her vision go dark. She was very tired and very cold. She felt chilled to the bone and desperately wanted to sleep. 'No gotta stay awake!' She forced herself up and looked around. She had expected to see both Xellos and Zelgadis with her. But they weren't, she was alone.

'Damnit! They're still out there!' Ignoring all the flashes of pain Lina got back to the door. She gripped the knob tightly bracing herself once again for the cold.

Lina opened the door slightly only to have it swing itself open with such a strange force that it sent Lina flying backwards knocking her head against a wall. Her body crumpled to the floor unconscious as dark misty shadows from outside entered the room looming over Lina.


	3. Part 3 RSBI Halloween fic 2003

_Author's Notes: This is RSBI's 2003 Halloween fic. _

**The Curse of the Night of Harvest Moon**

Part Three

By Relm

"WHERE'S LINA?" Zelgadis yelled to Xellos as they still trekked towards their goal.

"I THINK SHE MADE IT IN!" Xellos yelled back.

"WHAT?"

Xellos took a tired hand and pointed to the door which was only a few steps away.

Zelgadis nodded and went to reach for the knob. Like Lina before him Zelgadis' hand stung with pain from the contact with the knob.

It was almost like a vacuum as the door opened sucking them in.

Both men fell forward hitting the floor with a loud thud.

"Lina." Zelgadis hissed in a weakened voice. He moved his rag doll body up onto his knees as he looked around. It looked a general store. "Lina?" Zelgadis yelled this time, but he got no answer. That's when he noticed it, the pool of blood by the wall. Zelgadis had no way of knowing for sure if that was Lina's blood but he knew it was. There was a sharp sickly feeling at the pit of his stomach.

"She fell asleep?" Xellos asked quietly.

"We don't know if that's her blood." Zelgadis said despite what he was thinking. "That could be someone else."

"Then where is Miss Lina?"

Zelgadis didn't say anything; he just got up to search.

It was eerie going through the dark store. The 'storm' raged outside very loudly threatening to rip the general store apart in pieces. Otherwise the store was very quiet. Nothing was out of place, it was all need and organized. Except for the many pools of blood that they found. Zelgadis and Xellos didn't find a single living person anywhere. Nor did they find any sort of essence indicating that the building was connected to the spell.

"Miss Lina isn't here." Xellos comment in a quiet voice.

"Let's try the next building. There's nothing here." Zelgadis said while already heading towards the door. His voice lacked emotion.

The weather wasn't any better than when they left in fact it almost seemed worse.

With the chilling wind and the haze of the jetting stream of dark rain made it seem like they were being pelted with sheets of ice. Getting to the next building would prove to be a very cumbersome task.

Xellos stumbled and fell over as his numb feet stubbed on a piece of wood. He was soaked to the bone and shaking violently. In the past he had always laughed at human weakness wondering why they complained and whined so much. But here he was vulnerable and victim to the elements and all he wanted to do was cry. Xellos had never realized how hard it was. Sure he had been affected by the harvest moons of the past but he had never been in a situation like this before. He was ready to give up; it was too much for him. 'I'm so tired, I want to sleep.'

Zelgadis looked back behind him and saw the fallen trickster priest. In any normal circumstances Zelgadis would just leave Xellos to rot and go off on his own. But this wasn't a normal night, these weren't normal circumstances. Zelgadis backtracked and whatever energy he could muster he pulled the monster to his feet. "You are going to owe me big time for this."

...

"No, no! This won't do at all!" The insane man screamed at his viewing orb. "All must die! I must have my revenge! Mwhahahahahaha!" He laughed mechanically.

...

The winds picked up to amazing speeds hitting everything with a crazed fury.

Zelgadis and Xellos were hurled against a building like little rag dolls. Bits of older houses started to rip from their woodwork and become airborne flying dangerously.

"WE HAVE TO TAKE COVER!" Zelgadis yelled over the winds.

Xellos nodded.

Before the two of them could get to anywhere that could be considered safe a roof shingle flew by and hit Zelgadis smack on his forehead. Blood trickled down his face as his body crumpled to the ground in a splash. Dark demon shaped shadows surrounded Zelgadis' unconscious body.

Xellos tried to get to the chimera but the shadows repelled him.

Zelgadis' face twisted into one of complete pain screaming as his body disappeared in a splatter of blood.

"NOOOOO!" Xellos yelled. Now he was truly alone. 'What am I going to do?'

...

Pain exploded through Zelgadis' head as he woke up. He was on his back with blood still dripping down his face. 'Where am I? Am I dead?' He thought for a moment. 'I wouldn't be in pain if I was.' He sat himself up and looked around. The sky around him was a dark swirl of shades of dark green, blue, red and purples. The ground was the same thing. In fact there was no real distinction between the ground and the sky. It was almost as if Zelgadis was floating in some dimensional nothingness. Objects floated by Zelgadis. Clocks, statues and other harvest festival related things. They glowed silver but when Zelgadis went to reach for one of them his hand went right through them. "What the hell is going on here?" Zelgadis asked out loud.

"Ah got caught here too huh? Well as-" was as far as Lina got in her sentence. Upon seeing the red headed sorceress Zelgadis flung to Lina embracing her in a bone crunching hug.

"You're alive." Zelgadis mumbled in her hair.

Lina didn't know what to say. She just stood there all ridged as Mr. Unemotional was latched onto her. Once she realized what was going on she blushed ten shades of crimson. "Gee did I worry you that much?" Lina half joked.

Zelgadis let go of Lina to look her in the eye. He didn't say anything he just stared at her with weary eyes.

"Yeah I guess I did. Did you and Xellos find anything?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "Nothing. The storm got really bad and I got hit with something. Where are the others?"

"Don't know. Haven't seen them yet. As far as I've been able to piece out we're in a dimensional pocket like we had figured everyone was being sucked into. I manage to locate some of the missing townsfolk but the place is so vast that-"

"Looking for the others is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Must have been a fluke for you to find me." Zelgadis finished off.

"I wish I knew whose doing this. But we can't do much from here. I guess it's all up to Xellos now." Lina frowned. Putting all her faith in Xellos was a very scary thing.

"I don't know if he's going to do too well…"

"Why?"

"Last time I saw him I needed to help him just to stay standing. He's not used to being in a human form."

Lina's face fell. "Well scrap that idea. Let's just hope that there is some way we can get ourselves out of here from inside the pocket. And we'd better see if we can find the others too."

...

Xellos huddled against the building that he had been thrown against. He desperately wanted to fall asleep but at the same time he was afraid of those shadow creatures. He saw what they did to Zelgadis; Xellos had no idea whether or not Zelgadis was dead. But the thought of that happening to him scared Xellos to no end. Fear, yet another human emotion that had never plagued him like this before. He was petrified.

Suddenly the rain and the wind halted. A dark haze still covered the town and the moon was still bloody and it was still cold but the storm seemed to temporally subside.

Though curious about the sudden change in weather, Xellos was reluctant to move from his fetal position against the building. But eventually curiosity got the better of him and Xellos rose to his feet and ventured to the street once more. Everything was calm and there wasn't a soul in sight. 'What's going on?'

A small splash from Xellos' right alerted him and he turned around. All that he saw was deserted town around him. Breathing aside the town was deafly silent. A puddle near Xellos rippled but there was no sign of what caused the ripple.

Xellos' eyes darted around. 'Maybe I'm just hearing things.'

Something stepped behind Xellos. He spun around and still he saw nothing.

Again he heard soft footsteps but every time he turned he saw nothing. His heart was beating wildly as he frantically searched for his would be assailant. But still nothing.

Xellos screamed shutting his eyes close. 'If I ignore it, it will go away.' He slowly opened his eyes to see a shadow beast staring back at him. "AHHHHHHHH!" Xellos screamed recoiling backwards and right into another shadow beast. He screamed again trying to get away but the shadow monsters were all around him. In slithery whispers that almost sounded like children's voices they whispered to Xellos taunting him.

_Naughty…_

_Evil…_

_You've been bad…_

_Naughty…_

_You will be punished…_

_Evil…_

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Xellos screamed yet again, his emotional stability crumbling as tears welled in his eyes and fell down his cheeks. "Leave me alone."

But the shadow creatures didn't. They pushed tighter around him till Xellos was huddled in a ball in the wet mud as they loomed over him.

_Naughty… Evil…You will be punished…_

Inside Xellos was cursing himself. 'Why am I so scared? Why? I'm a damn monster! Not a weak human!'

One of the shadow beasts reached for Xellos with its' arm. Xellos could feel the burning pain of the shadowy limb even before it touched his arm. But before the beast could get his hand on Xellos, he snapped. With intense fury Xellos screamed, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" and pushed them away with all this might.

Temporarily stunned a few of the shadow beasts fell down making a window of escape for Xellos.

Xellos wasted no time, and went straight for the new opening. Even though he had no energy and his clothing was heavy with thick mud he ran. Pure fear pushed him on, running for his life. He didn't know where he was going all that he knew was that he needed to get away. He went straight for the closest building in his sight. His body made rough contact with the door as he ran too fast towards it. His weak hands fumbled for the knob which proved to be harder to move then it really should have been. But Xellos wasn't thinking. Finally the door was opened and Xellos rushed inside running.

...

Lina and Zelgadis walked through the dimensional pocket in search of anything that could help them in the situation. But they hadn't found anything useful. Just more vast empty space and more floating things.

Zelgadis was kinda unnerved while walking around the dimensional prison. With all the things floating by him and the lack of ground distinction it was making him queasy in the stomach. "Ugh…" He groaned while clutching his stomach.

"Motion sickness?" Lina enquired.

Zelgadis didn't answer, he just closed his eyes.

"Try not to look down. That helps."

"Lina where are they all coming from?"

Lina frowned. "What?"

"Those floating glowing items, where are they coming from?"

"That's what I was following when I found you. They all seem to be coming from one direction. So I figured that maybe that there was some source that they were coming from. It was the only possible lead to anything that could get me out of here that I could think of when I got stuck here."

Zelgadis sighed. "May as well. We have nothing else to go on."

...

Xellos ran through the house he was in. He tried his best to get away from the creatures, but they were there everywhere he went. Every corner he took, every hall he went down. He didn't know where they shadow creatures were all coming from. But of course seeing how they were shadow creatures it was likely that they could go through walls but Xellos wasn't thinking coherently. Escape and hide where the only two thoughts on his mind and a nearby closet seemed like a good idea to him. He ran to the door and went to open the door but closed it when he saw was behind the door.

There was only one direction that Xellos could take, and that was back out of the house. With no other options left to him he ran back onto the streets.

Xellos tried any building around that he hoped would be a safe place but whether they were locked or not, Xellos couldn't work the doors.

'What am I going to do?' Xellos thought desperately amidst his run. Then from the corner of his eye he saw the temple that he, Lina and Zelgadis had gone to earlier. 'If it's her beasts that are after me then they will probably be able to go into the temple. But if they are not being a holy place they shouldn't be able to enter.' Xellos hoped as he ran to the temple.

...

Zelgadis and Lina walked countless steps in hopes to find where all these floating objects were coming from. But the whole place seemed to go on forever.

"Mommy I'm scared! I want to go home." A young child nearby cried out to his mother.

"We'll go home soon honey, you'll just have to be patient." The mother tried to calm her son.

"But Mommy why are we in this bad place. Is this the vengeance goddesses doing? But I'm not a bad boy. I'm not one am I Mommy?"

"No, son you're a wonderful boy."

"Then why is this happening?"

"I don't know, I just don't know."

This was a common thing that Lina and Zelgadis saw as they walked. There were many families huddled together in fear not knowing what was going on. It was a saddening sight.

"What sort of twisted person would do something like this?" Lina asked out loud.

"I wish I knew. Hey Lina look!" Zelgadis pointed to the objects.

Some in the sky were coming from the direction they were going while others far off were going away instead of coming closer. Likewise with the objects to the east and west. The origins of the objects were getting nearer.

Lina looked at Zelgadis and grinned. The two of them quickened their pace till they were practically running towards the spot. Objects flew by their heads at alarming speeds and caused both of them to flinch forgetting that they could go through them. But that didn't stop them. They kept running till they got to what they were looking for.

The origin of the floating objects was a small statue that was nearly suspended in the air. It was a statue of the goddess again, her hair was depicted as if there was wind pushing it behind her and up like she was casting a spell. Her hands where outstretched as if to shoot out the energy of the spell she was casting. Meanwhile her face though depicted as beautiful and merciful by some statues this one was twisted like a demon with a menacing grin. This was the same face that other three statues had from the temple. The objects where appearing from her hands.

"I think that answers the question on whether or not this is involved." Lina commented with a half smile. "Does this one give off more essence?"

Zelgadis nodded. "Yes this does. But…"

"It's only part of the center of the spell."

"Right, but the other part is linked to this part. If one breaks they both might break."

"Or both have to be broken in order to stop the spell." Lina commented with a frown.

"And in that case we'd have to hope that Xellos has figured out things on his end and breaks the other object."

"That's assuming the other center is an object. What if it's the person that cast this spell? Killing him/her could dissolve this dimension." Lina wondered out loud while pacing.

"We'll have to leave that up to Xellos to figure out. We can't do anything about that. So how do we go about breaking it?"

Lina grinned. "Leave that up to me, I'm an expert at demolishing things."

"Even without magic?" Zelgadis raised an eyebrow.

Lina sweatdropped. "Oh yeah I forgot about that. I'll just try kicking it." Lina attempted to land a swift kick on the little statue but as her boot was about to make contact some unseen force repelled her backwards. She landed hard on her side which looked strange because it didn't look like there was a ground for her to fall on.

"Are you alright?" Zelgadis asked helping her up.

"Yeah a little bruised, but okay. I wasn't expecting that." Lina brushed herself off.

"I was."

"Then why the hell did you let me do that?" Lina yelled.

"Try and stop you from doing something? What do you think I'm crazy?"

Lina just glared at him. "Well why don't you give it a try?"

Zelgadis pressed his lips together in thought. "Perhaps this will work." Zelgadis took one of his shoes off and he threw it at the statue. Before the shoe could make contact it was repelled like Lina was and nearly hit Zelgadis in the face. "Looks like it repels any sort of physical contact." Zelgadis mused while retrieving his shoe.

"Nice little fail safe. I bet if we could do magic we'd have that thing turned into a pile of dust." Lina grumbled.

"I wouldn't doubt that."

...

As suspected the shadow beasts did not follow Xellos into the temple. And with the very things gone that were causing him fear, Xellos was able to do some good hard thinking. 'If they are the goddesses' demons then they shouldn't have any problem coming in here. And they would have to be hers, any sort of creature like that wouldn't be able to do those things. So if they are hers then why can't they come in here?' Xellos thought while leaning against one of the bigger statues in the temple. 'Why?'

Xellos looked around and saw the many candles the lit up the otherwise dark and cold temple. Candles that had been brought and lit by others and probably should have gone out but still shone brightly. And that's when it hit him. 'They are her demons but they aren't being controlled by her. Someone else is using her power. But to do something like that they would need to be in the temple but Zelgadis already determined that the statues here are just anchors.' Xellos frowned. 'Wait a minute! It's not a three point anchor for the curse; it's a three point anchor barrier! Someone is using the statues to protect themselves from the magic nullification effects of the moon!' Xellos beamed at his ability to solve the riddle. Since the rising of the moon his mind had been a little muddled making thinking a bit more a chore. 'Now to find where that coward is hiding.' Xellos grinned in a ghost of his normal sinister grin.

...

"What is he grinning about?" The insane man yelled at his viewing orb. "What are you planning monster?"

...

Xellos wasted no time, he starting running through the temple descending the stairs towards the main alter. He had a pretty good idea where his hidden spell caster was.

The main statue stood with her arms held open. The smell just as 'pleasant' as it was when he had been there the last time.

'Now where are you hiding?' Xellos mentally mused as he searched the room. He was looking for any hidden passages. 'Our little spell caster has to be underground somewhere. Ah-ha I found it!' Xellos grinned as he found the loose floor slab. He moved it to reveal a staircase. "Got you now!" Xellos yelled as he ran down the stairs.

The sight Xellos saw before him was not all unlike he expected. Dark room only lit by dark candles in a circle and the reason behind all the madness in the center of it. But nothing could prepare Xellos for whom he saw.

"So you found my little hideout." The man hissed out with a sneer.

Xellos just stood there unable to speak. The man before him was an old 'friend' of his. It was a deranged sorcerer that he had known from hundreds of years ago. The man wasn't human, well not fully anyways. He was half demon though which demon was up to be decided. His face was worn with many wrinkles and the extra skin on his cheeks hung downward on his face. One of his eyes seemed bigger than the other and bulged out with a yellow tint to it meanwhile the other was much smaller and was lazy with it barely open. Warts dotted his face and his nose which was twisted and turned to one side. His jaw was misshapen with his rotting teeth protruding out of his mouth. His skin was a sickly green color and his thinning hair was grey and unhealthy. One of his shoulders was hunched while the other was hung very low. One of his legs were shorter than the other making his body seem very twisted, but it was that anyway. He was dressed in a simple black robe that hung very loosely on his boney body.

"What is wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

"Gralin." Xellos finally managed to speak. "So it was you."

"Yes Xellos it was me. For years I've wanted revenge on you you slimy bastard! You promised me power and immortally! Instead you turned me into this hideous creature!" Gralin screamed loudly in Xellos' face.

Xellos nearly choked on the smell of Gralin's breath. "I granted what you asked for."

"Yeah power with a body that cannot die! It ages! Every day my body feels as though it's failing me, the pain is too great! But I cannot take my life! I stab myself and my body bleeds but it does not die."

"You asked for power and immortality you never said anything about stopping your body from aging. You should have said something about that before you made your wish." Xellos said in his trademark voice and grin.

"Stopped aging comes with immortality! You twisted monster. You knew damn well that's what I wanted but of course you would never give it to me. You monsters all the same! You all promise big things but you just end up screwing people over. You changed me into this and left me to rot! But now I'll have my revenge!" Gralin cackled before chanting under his breath. He lifted his hands and a pulse of energy shot out from it hitting Xellos and pinning him to the wall. "I plan to make you suffer before I kill you." He clenched his hands making the energy around Xellos' neck tighten, choking the monster.

"What good is killing me?" Xellos choked out. "Your body is linked to mine. You kill me you'll die as well."

Gralin cackled. "Don't you see you fool? That is what I want! I want to die, I want to end it all but I can't do that till you are dead! I'm stuck to this mortal plain as long as you live. So long have I been planning this. I've wanted to make you suffer, make you scream and now I'll finally be able to do it. Killing you in the most painful ways will be a sweet way to end my life. MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" His hands tightened again further crushing Xellos' wind pipe.

Xellos opened his eyes and stared at Gralin. 'What am I going to do? How can I stop him?' Then he noticed something glowing hanging from Gralin's neck. It was a pendant and what was glowing on it was an etching of an ancient symbol meaning vengeance. 'That must be the focal point! But how do I destroy it?' "Chocking me isn't a very painful way to kill me now is it?"

Gralin narrowed his eyes in thought. "I suppose you're right." He opened his hand and Xellos fell to the floor. "I wasn't thinking. I guess I've been so consumed with wanted revenge that I was too quick to act. And I don't want that. I want this to last." Gralin grinned as four daggers became airborne and went flying towards Xellos.

...

"GAAHHHH! How the hell do we break this damn thing!" Lina screamed in frustration. She had tried hitting it several times, each time being thrown back while not even touching the statue.

Zelgadis just shook his head at Lina. She wasn't thinking rationally. 'Flinging yourself at it isn't going to do anything.' Zelgadis thought. But alas they had no other options. They tried throwing anything they could at the statue from different angles. They had tried to see if they could cast anything but the harvest moon seemed to effect them even in a dimensional pocket. And like Lina was doing they had tried hitting the statue with themselves but nothing worked. "I don't think we can do anything till the other focal point is damaged. I'm pretty sure that's what's keeping this physical barrier up."

Lina grumbled.

...

Xellos cried out in pain. He was now pinned to the wall by the flying daggers. Some were just pinning him through his clothing, while others were pinned through his flesh. Blood was dripping down to the floor in a big red pool. He could already feel his vision start to blur. But he wasn't about to give up yet. "So you're going to throw things at me? Would it be more satisfying to hurt me with your bare hands rather than use magic?" Xellos muttered in a weak voice.

"I suppose that's true. Even though doing this with magic from afar is much safer I'm not feeling as much satisfaction as I hoped. What am I afraid for anyway. It's not like you can do much." Gralin darkly cackled yet again as he stalked closer to the bleeding trickster priest. His breath was hot and sour on Xellos' face as he brought another dagger to Xellos' stomach. Gralin jabbed the dagger into Xellos' stomach and gave it a twist.

Xellos howled in pain with tears fell down his cheeks in a constant stream.

Gralin went into childish giggles. "Ha ha ha! Does it hurt? Do you want to die yet? Because we've still got lots more fun coming up. Hee hee hee hee hee hee!" Gralin went into another chorus of maddening giggles. He threw his head backwards laughing deliriously.

Xellos opened one of his eyes and seized the opportunity. With his left hand which was only pinned through his clothing he balled his hand into a fist and punched Gralin in the chest, aiming for the pendant that hung there.

Gralin fell backwards from the force and he clutched his chest. The pendant was now cracked and the light was fading. "You fool! You think you can stop me like that! HA! As long as the other still stands my spell will never waver!" Gralin yelled rising to his feet.

...

Lina was about to try and hit the statue again when it flashed a large ball of light that repelled both Lina and Zelgadis backwards onto the ground.

The statue ceased it's floating and fell to the ground. A large crack had formed in the middle of the goddess' torso.

"Lina look!"

"Looks like Xellos did it after all! Better finish this quick!" Lina got back up and went to smash the now barrier less statue.

Gralin aimed more flying daggers at this victim and let them fly.

Xellos closed his eyes and tried to brace himself for the upcoming pain. Seconds went by and nothing happened. When Xellos opened his eyes he saw the daggers hanging mid air inches from his face.

"What? NOOOOOO!" Gralin screamed as his cracked pendant crumbled and was reduced to dust. Dust which was carried away by a sudden wind.

The daggers fell to the ground making clanging noises as they hit the stone floor. The dark room was filled with more wind nearly blowing out the candles. One by one the shadow beasts filled the tiny room.

Xellos suppressed a scream. 'Why are they here?' But then he noticed they weren't coming after him.

The shadow creatures surrounded Gralin. "NOOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? !" Gralin let out a blood curdling scream as the creatures made him disappear leaving only a pool of blood.

...

Everyone stuck in the dimensional pocket was returned to the town unharmed. Everyone was still confused to what had happened but they were happy they were safe.

Lina and Zelgadis found themselves inside the temple once again standing in front of the large statue of the main alter. The goddess was no longer demonic she looked as beautiful as she had ever been.

"So the focal point was here all along?" Lina wondered out loud.

"Lina there's a secret passage over there." Zelgadis pointed to the stone slab that had been moved showing the staircase leading downwards.

Both Lina and Zelgadis went down the stairs and found Xellos bleeding and pinned to a wall with daggers. A circle of candles lit the room.

"Miss Lina how good it is to see you again." Xellos commented weakly.

"Xellos! Are you alright?" Lina asked as she and Zelgadis helped him from the wall.

"Fine as I can be now that Gralin is gone."

"Gralin? Whose Gralin?" Zelgadis raised an eyebrow.

"Why an old acquaintance of mine."

"You mean this is your fault?" Lina screamed.

...

Gralin opened a weak eye to see where he was. All he saw was fire and shadows, and blood. He heard screaming as people around him were being tortured.

_Naughty…_

_Evil…_

_You will be punished…_

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gralin screamed as he too got tortured. He truly was in hell.

The End

_**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**_


End file.
